Tomorrow, October 8, about 25 former one-room school students are expected to arrive at Kibler School on Pohopoco Drive at 1 p.m. to be interviewed. I am one of them. The attendees will be asked to list the schools we attended, the years we attended, and the names of our teachers. We will be questioned on what we liked and disliked about our one-room education and whether or not we felt prepared for life. We will also be asked if we will permit more in-depth follow-up interviews. I am pleased to be a part of this, but it does make me feel kind of old to be of interest to historians.
The event is sponsored by the Towamensing Township Historical Commission and the Kibler School Committee of the Palmerton Area Historical Society. The data collected will be used as a resource for future historians or for genealogical research. It is too bad the interviews were not done years ago--Towamensing one-room school attendees are departing this earth at a fairly rapid rate. We are all over 60.
I’ve given some thought about what I will tell the interviewer. What I liked most was when the other classes were doing their recitations, I could read. As long as you were quiet, the teacher didn’t mind what you did, and I read and read. What did I dislike? I know from past experience that some people will say the outdoor toilets on cold winter days. For me, however, it was watching some of my fellow classmates punished with a wooden paddle. While I was never paddled personally, I lived in fear of it, and I hated to see fellow students beaten that way.
No comments:
Post a Comment